well it mentions a lot about submarines and references to the sea like seen from a sub. window or something. i think it's about a man's voyage on a submarine that ends basically where i started, saying that time just seems to stand still down there and nothing ever changes. i could be close to the subject point, or i could be way off who knows? i get the feeling it might just be an atmospheric song with metaphors about being lonely...

"overhead the albatross hangs mointonless upon the air..." nothing is stirring, he (she) is alone.

"strangers passing...glances meet...i am you and what i see is me" --he is seeing his reflection and that's all he ever gets to see.

things like that.

i've always just pictured a man sitting in a sub doing nothing but looking around. then when the exxperimental section gets "heavy" i see him randomly jumping up and tearing things up in madness. then he calms down a bit and walks around the subto cool off. then he cleans up his mess, sits down and is back where he started again.

--that's what i always envision. that or just long visions of blue.

depressing really. but i love it.

yeah amazing song.

notice I'VE always seen the sub interp in MY head.

but it is a figurative form of art, and what you see is right, so is what i see, even if it wasn't the artists' intent. that's how i view prog at least. i'm very glad you guysd enjoyed my interp though.

its about ;

you have to sleep alone in the night

you dont have any girlfriend

and every morning you woke

you thank   god , that you are alive and not dead

"Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air, and deep beneath the rolling waves in labyrinths of coral caves, the echo of the distant tide comes willowing across the sand, and everything is green and submarine"

I think it really just describes a weird atmosphere. No doubt that it may be influenced by drugs. Because it seems to describe the world in a new view, as if you were just reintroduced to earth and started being weirded out and amazed by everything.

And the last part (not sure of the lyrics so don't mind if i get them wrong) "Cloudless as the dayfall upon my waking eyes, inviting and inciting me to rise, and through the window in the wall come streaming in on sunlight wings, a million bright ambassadors of morning. And no one makes me close my eyes, and so i throw the indosws wide and call to you across the sky"

I think this just describes waking up and going to sleep, and perhaps how sleep and night are symbolic of death, yet in the morning it's like sme new life, only you know everything that happened previous to your existence.

Jim Garten wrote: It's about.... 18 & a half minutes. sorry...

You're 5 minutes short

Tholomyes wrote: It's about human evolution and technology.

that might make sense. examples?

krusty wrote: Not sure about the crows in the middle though? Unless they are Gulls

Dolphins? Whales?

Peace Frog wrote:  and so i throw the indosws wide and call to you across the sky"

Wow, did anyone notice the way I spelled "windows" was really disturbingly wrong? What the hell was I on?

BaldFriede wrote: I think the eerie middle section is the submarine being at the bottom of the sea, with lots of strange creatures around. What follows is the surfacing of the submarine.

Hey Baldfriede, i've underlined some words in your thread above; they call to my mind a song from a famous British prog band from the '70s (among your/my favourites). Have you understood which song/band i'm talking about???

In my opinion you should know the answer; this song is one of their best.

Please, answer.

i still get an overall lonliness vibe from the song, and i still enjoy the sub theory the best--i just think it fits.

Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air
And deep beneath the rolling waves
In labyrinths of coral caves
The echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine

in this verse i think we begin the story with a landscape view zeroing in on the man in the submarine. we'll start out in his "study" where an albatross hangs motionless upon the air, move outwards into the ocean looking in on the submarine sitting on the bottom on the ocean/an ocean cliff all alone.

And no one showed us to the land
And no one knows the wheres or whys
But something stirs and something tries
And starts to climb toward the light

He doesn't know why he's there but nevertheless he realizes he can't stay there forever and begins to "climb toward the light"

Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand the best I can

--this is one of my favorite lyrical verses in history--alright. On a literal level first then. He's walking aimlessly through the sub and he sees in relection in something. He stops to loook at himself and ends up in a sort of daydream where he imagines himself as a king of sorts, surrounded by people. He realizes this is all disallusion and go's back to walking. On an interprative level: I think this is just describing the "lonliness" vibe--all he ever sees is himself, he is alone. So he daydreams about being a king and "leading through the land" but he knows that within himself he'll always be alone and he (his reflection) has to "help him understand the best he can" --the reflection must always be there in order to remind him that he is alone if that makes sense. It does to me.  

And no one calls us to move on
And no one forces down our eyes
And no one speaks and no one tries
And no one flies around the sun

He has no motivation to end his lonliness (he may not even really be on a submarine, it's just a symbol of his lonliness) but he also has no motivation for being lonely. Yet still no one is there to help him out of his little mess. As for the last line...I gather that he thinks he's sunk to a point where it's impossible for him to get back up. He's downand dirty to the point where he's almost buried in the dirt. 

During the instrumental passage I picture many things happening, always changing. Mostly I see him having another little daydream in which he goes nuts and tears everything to hell. Near teh end when teh verse line resurfaces I see him returning to reality, just sitting in his little study with blank eyes. 

Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes
Inviting and inciting me to rise

Well here I think it makes sense that he just wants to be dead. He sees no clouds/no hope, and "you" is his little alter ego/reflection--that little bit of hope that keeps "inviting and inticing him to rise" --he still has a chance of being redeemed and finding happiness.

And through the window in the wall
Comes streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning

One of two things happens here--Another daydream where he sees false hope and embraces it, or hope actually does arrive in the form of ???????. OR it could be a little mixture of both, he has evidently slept or rested to the point where he felt like he has slept--this is where it gets odd. A lot of things here support that the whole submarine trial was just a REAL dream someone (our character) was having as he slept. He dreamt of oppression and lonliness and wallowed in it in his empty submarine until we woke up to find that there was more hope than he thought--sunlight streaming through the window. For this bit--depending on how depressing of a person you are or make teh song out to be, you can kinda gather your own thoughts: Was it all a dream? Was the man embracing false hope? Has hope finally arrived in the form of "light" that he always saw but never reached until now (read the first chorus to notice another reference to "climbing towards the light")

And no one sings me lullabies
And no one makes me close my eyes
And so I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky

Depending on which mini-theory you like best this could once again just be a re-cap of basically the same thing.

If you support the "dream" thing, the man wakes up to find that nothing is holding him back, so he embraces his oppertunity and calls for othersto embrace it with him.

If you like the whole "alt. daydream" little thing this supports the whole lonliness vibe. No one's there for him to "sing him lullibies" or"make him close his eyes" (references to moving on), so he calls for help--he needs help.

The hope that finally arrived vibe suggests that no one is here to hold him back anymore (this could also refer to lifted emotions--he no longer feels lonely/depressed/alone), so he embraces life and "calls to it across the sky".

Also the last line point that he could be thanking someone for helping him out of his miserable little phase.

And there you have it...depending on how I feel, those are the 3 little stories I've come up with for this magnificent song--Now I'm going to go listen to it. If anyone else sees anything in it please post--I'd like to see the whole technology thing in idea-format...it intrests me yet I can't find very many references to prove it--and by the way i LOVE analyzing songs, so if you have any other song you'd like for me to give a shot then please PM me or start a topic about it.

If you don't see this little story/journey than that's fine--what do you see? After all the song is extremely personal--you could see it on a more or less reality-based level. 

Enjoy

King Volta (Ben)  

Sorry King, but I dissagree with some of it. The lyric you and I both like best,

"Strangers passing in the street." - That part, I think it is about someone else, litterally. The key word would be, Strangers, so it's someone else he has never met.

"I am you and what I see is me." - I think this sentence is just a fancy way of saying that they are both looking at eachother. I think you are just looking to hard into the lyrics, I mean after all, this is Roger before Darkside that we are talking about. He often used a lot of metaphors and worded things differently to seem smarter, instead of being blunt with his lyrics like he is in Dogs, for example.

The last verse has to be the main character waking up, "upon my waking eyes", so mabey the beginning of the song is a dream, and the build up section is him waking, or having some sort of an epiphany.
The guitar solo before the third verse always made me think of someone coming to a realization of something, an epiphany that is dramatic.

Rust wrote: Sorry King, but I dissagree with some of it. The lyric you and I both like best, "Strangers passing in the street." - That part, I think it is about someone else, litterally. The key word would be, Strangers, so it's someone else he has never met. "I am you and what I see is me." - I think this sentence is just a fancy way of saying that they are both looking at eachother. I think you are just looking to hard into the lyrics, I mean after all, this is Roger before Darkside that we are talking about. He often used a lot of metaphors and worded things differently to seem smarter, instead of being blunt with his lyrics like he is in Dogs, for example. The last verse has to be the main character waking up, "upon my waking eyes", so mabey the beginning of the song is a dream, and the build up section is him waking, or having some sort of an epiphany. The guitar solo before the third verse always made me think of someone coming to a realization of something, an epiphany that is dramatic.

haha it's fine that you disagree with me. i encourage it =).

but the stranger could still be him. he is no longer in touch with himself, he doesn't know who he is, what he's striving for--he no longer has a purpose for living. it all works out really.

I always thought it was about the beach and the sea etc. But then thats why I love lyrics because they can mean differnet things to different people.

Empathy wrote: I've always thought it was about human evolution, with "No one called us to the land" being about the mystery of why that first amphibian ancestor of ours decided to see what was above the waterline. "Strangers passing in the street, by chance two separate glances meet, and I am you and what I see is me" - to me, this is about the fact that we're all made of the same basic material. Then again, I'm probably "overthinking" it all. I AM a Tool fan, after all!

Your's sounds about the most accurate one of all of the theories. I think the others are just overthinking it.

Ya don't need to debate on what the song means, just enjoy it for what it is!